1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally an electronic musical instrument capable of generating tones expressive likewise an acoustic piano, and particularly relates to an electronic musical instrument for providing a naturally sounding key-off tone in response to a key-off touch.
2. Description of Related Art
Acoustic instruments such as acoustic pianos are constructed to forcibly mute the sounding by use of a muting member such as a damper when the muting is desired at a key-off operation. This distorts the sound waveform at muting from that of the original waveform due to the string vibration caused by a key-on operation. Such sound damping action varies in accordance with key-off touches, so that varying them can in turn vary sounds at muting, thereby enhancing user""s expressive power of musical performance.
In order to achieve this purpose, related-art electronic musical instruments are configured to detect a velocity of a key-off operation and to control a sound signal in accordance with the detected velocity level to enhance the expressive power of musical performance (as disclosed in Japanese Published Examined Patent Application No. Sho 63-34473 for example). Another related electronic musical instrument (as disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-134671) creates acoustic piano damping effects by applying a limiter operation to key-off waveforms, thereby enhancing the expressive power of musical performance.
It is therefore a main object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument which can create rich performance expression responsive to modes of key operation such as acoustic piano, and which imparts variations to key-on and key-off tones by key operations including key-on touch and key-off touch to thereby enrich the expression of generated tones. Especially, the main object of the present invention is to provide an electronic musical instrument configured to enhance the capabilities of tone control processing for key-off operations so that damping waveforms can be controlled in various manners in accordance with the key-off operations, thereby further enhancing the expression of musical performance at the time of key-off operations.
In a main aspect of the invention, an electronic musical apparatus having a generator for generating a tone, comprises a play member provided for playing a music such that a key-on touch operation and a key-off touch operation are performed on the play member to input a note of the music, a detector that detects the key-on touch operation and the key-off touch operation to generate key-on information and key-off information, and a controller operative based on the key-on information and the key-off information for controlling the generator to generate a tone corresponding to the note, wherein the detector detects a transitional state of the key-off touch operation for generating a sequence of first key-off information and second key-off information indicative of the transitional state of the key-off touch operation, and the controller responds to the first key-off information for controlling the generator to start generating of a trailing tone of the note and responds to the second key-off information for controlling the generator to stop generating of the trailing tone of the note.
In an additional aspect of the invention, an electronic musical apparatus comprises a play member provided for playing a music such that a key-on touch operation and a key-off touch operation are performed on the play member to input a note of the music, a detector that detects the key-on touch operation and the key-off touch operation to generate key-on information and key-off information, a generator controllable for generating a tone, and a controller operative based on the key-on information and the key-off information for controlling the generator to generate a tone associated to the note, wherein the detector detects a transitional state of the key-off touch operation for generating a sequence of first key-off information and second key-off information indicative of the transitional state of the key-off touch operation, the generator has a memory storing a waveform representing a tone corresponding to the key-off touch operation, and the controller controls the generator for reading out the waveform from the memory in response to the first key-off information to start generating of the tone corresponding to the key-off touch operation, and controls the generator to stop generating of the tone corresponding to the key-off touch operation in response to the second key-off information.
In a further aspect of the invention, an electronic musical apparatus comprises a play member provided for playing a music such that a key-on touch operation and a key-off touch operation are performed on the play member to input a note of the music, a detector that detects the key-on touch operation to output key-on information and that detects the key-off touch operation to output key-off information, a generator that has a first sound source for generating a first tone and a second sound source for generating a second tone, and a controller operative based on the key-on information for controlling the generator to generate the first tone from the first sound source, and operative based on the key-off information for controlling the generator to generate the second tone from the second sound source, the controller further controlling the generator to regulate a duration of the second tone according to the key-off information.
In a still further aspect of the invention, an electronic musical apparatus comprises a key member provided for performing a key-on touch operation in a forward stroke and a key-off touch operation in a return stroke so as to input a music note, a mass member linked to the key member to undergo a forward stroke in response to the forward stroke of the key member for imparting a weight to the key-on touch operation, and to undergo a return stroke in response to the return stroke of the key member, wherein the mass member has a stroke span set greater than a stroke span of the key member, a detector that has a first sensor for detecting the forward stroke and the return stroke of the key member to output key-off information in response to the key-off touch operation, and a second sensor for detecting the forward stroke and the return stroke of the mass member to output key-on information in response to the key-on touch operation, a generator that has a first sound source for generating a leading tone of the music note and a second sound source for generating a trailing tone of the music note, and a controller operative based on the key-on information outputted from the second sensor for controlling the generator to generate the leading tone from the first sound source, and being operative based on the key-off information outputted from the first sensor for controlling the generator to generate the trailing tone from the second sound source.
Generally, close observation of a piano key-off operation reveals that a string corresponding to a key that has been hit vibrates while reducing oscillation in a state where the string is placed very close to a damper felt. The damper felt is gradually applied to the string generating a key-off tone including a subtle harmonics tone, and is finally fully pressed against the string to mute the key-off tone. Therefore, a piano player can effectively vary his or her key-off touch to generate a variety of key-off tones, thereby achieving an intended key-off performance effect.
According to the main aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument which detects a touch of a key for musical performance and controls the generation of a tone on the basis of the resultant touch information. First key-off touch information and second key-off touch information are generated in accordance with the musical performance made by use of the keys, the generation of key-off control information is started in response to the generation of the first key-off touch information to generate a key-off trailing tone, at least a portion of the key-off control information is stopped in response to the generation of the second key-off touch information. At the same time, the generated key-off tone is quickly muted. Namely, according to the invention, a state of a key for musical performance at the time of a key-off operation is grasped on the basis of the first key-off touch information and the second key-off touch information. First, the key-off control information is generated in accordance with the first key-off touch information to generate a key-off tone including a subtle harmonics tone produced by the key-off operation, then, in accordance with the second key-off touch information, the key-off control information is stopped and the key-off tone is quickly muted to control the key-off operation such that a quick muting process of damper felt application and subsequent damper felt pressing is simulated. Consequently, this novel constitution allows players to produce intended subtle key-off tones.
According to the additional aspect of the invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument which detects a touch of a key for musical performance, and which controls the generation of a tone on the basis of the resultant touch information. In the instrument, tone waveform storage means or memory for storing tone waveforms is arranged, first key-off touch information and second key-off touch information are generated in accordance with a performance operation made through the key for musical performance, the generation of key-off control information is started on the basis of the first key-off touch information, a key-off tone is generated on the basis of a tone waveform read from the tone waveform storage means, and the generated key-off tone is quickly muted in response to the generation of the second key-off touch information. Consequently, this novel constitution allows users to store key-off tone waveforms including a subtle harmonics tone generated at a key-off operation into the tone waveform storage means beforehand, and allows users to generate, by use of the stored key-off tone waveforms, a key-off tone with a subtle harmonics tone generated at a key-off operation reflected with fidelity.
It should be noted that the tone waveform storage means preferably stores tone waveforms obtained by sampling the total waveform of a key-off tone generated by an acoustic musical instrument such as a grand piano (GP). Preferably, the key-off tone waveform may be configured for enabling loop reading, thereby saving the storage capacity of the waveform memory and providing simplified control functionality.
According to the further aspect of the invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument which detects a touch of a key for musical performance, and which controls the generation of a tone on the basis of the resultant touch information. In the instrument, a first tone generator source and a second tone generator source are arranged, key-on information and key-off touch information are generated in accordance with a performance operation made by use of a key for musical performance, the generation of a tone on the basis of the first tone generator source is controlled by the key-on information, the generation of a tone on the basis of the second tone generator source is controlled by the key-off touch information. In accordance with a key-off touch level obtained from the key-off touch information, the length of a tone generated on the basis of the second tone generator source is controlled. Namely, in the present invention, the first tone generator source is used to generate a key-on leading tone in accordance with the key-on information generated by a key-on operation by use of a key for musical performance, and the second tone generator source is used to generate a key-off trailing tone in accordance with the key-off touch information, so that various types of sound sources may be used for each of these tone generator sources including mathematically generated waveforms such as FM tone generator in addition to a waveform memory to generate key-on and key-off tones, thereby providing variety of musical performance expressions. For example, both the tone generating sources may be of the same type, or one of the tone generator sources may be a waveform memory while the other may be an FM tone generator, or the second tone generator source may be a waveform memory. Further, because the length of a key-off tone is controlled in accordance with key-off touch level information, a key-off performance effect corresponding to a key-off operation can be obtained.
According to the still further aspect of the invention, the mass member pivots much more than the operation amount of the key member. For example, the total stroke of the mass member measured at a torque operating point or an actuating portion (second actuator 46 of the embodiment) to a sensor is set about three times as the total stroke of the key member measured at an operating point or an actuating portion (mass driver WA of the embodiment) to the mass member. In such settings, the leading or key-on waveform is read out in response to a switch event occurrence in the second sensor (on-event occurring at a forward key stroke), which is driven by the mass member during the key stroke in relatively deep operating position. The key-off or trailing waveform is read out in response to the switch event occurrence (off-event occurring in the reverse or return key stroke), which is driven by the key member during the key stroke in relatively shallow operating position. Thus, the inventive music apparatus has sounding/damping function quite similar to the acoustic piano, and realizes a natural and expressive sound system.
Either of the first and second sensors may be composed of a touch response switch having a touch response function to measure a differential detecting time by two contacts. In such a case, the second sensor may have a touch response function, while the first sensor may be composed of one contact type. Otherwise, both of the first and second sensors may have the touch response function. Particularly, the latter configuration can improve the expressive and natural sound generation effect.